Medical drapes are widely used during the performance of surgical and other medical procedures as a protective measure. Medical drapes may be used to cover a patient during surgical or other medical procedures. Medical drapes are made sterile and are intended to prevent the possibility of infection being transmitted to the patient. Medical drapes provide protection to the patient by creating a sterile environment surrounding the surgical site and maintaining an effective barrier that minimizes the passage of microorganisms between non-sterile and sterile areas. To perform adequately, the drape should be made of a material that is resistant to blood, plasma, serums, and/or other bodily fluids to prohibit such fluids from contaminating the sterile field.
Medical drapes may, for example, be manufactured for use in connection with catheters such as central venous catheters (CVCs). CVCs may be used, for example, for intravenous drug therapy and/or parenteral nutrition. If the catheter or area surrounding the catheter becomes contaminated during or after being inserted into a patient, complications such as catheter site infection, suppurative phlebitis, and/or septicemia may result.
To minimize the risk of infection associated with catheterization, medical drapes often include fenestrations, or apertures, that extend completely through the drape to provide access to an adjacent area of the patient's body (for example, the subclavian area, the brachial area, or the femoral area) over which the respective fenestration lies. Because of the open nature of the fenestrations, a catheter may be inserted through the fenestration(s) and into the area of the patient's body adjacent to the fenestration(s).
Existing medical drapes that include fenestrations have several disadvantages. For example, if a medical drape includes more than one fenestration, not all of which are being used for inserting a catheter, the area of the patient's body adjacent the unused fenestration(s) remains unnecessarily exposed during the procedure. Thus, bodily fluids and/or other surgical fluids that may contain microorganisms may contact the exposed area of the patient's body through the unused fenestration(s) and possibly lead to infection.
Moreover, existing medical drapes having fenestrations only provide access to one area (for example, the subclavian area) of the body. Thus, more than one drape may be required for procedures that require a catheter to be inserted into multiple areas of the patient's body (for example, the subclavian area and the brachial area). Utilizing multiple drapes during one procedure is both inconvenient for health care providers and dangerous for patients because it exposes the patient to potential contamination, which may lead to infection.
Thus, it would be desirable to have a medical drape that assists in addressing one or more of the above disadvantages.